Stock suspension height?

[crbn blu]

I need the help of a Celica GT owner with STOCK springs/struts and STOCK wheels. Before I upgraded to my TRD coilovers, I wrote down the stock ride height (the height from the center of the wheel to the fender lip) at each corner. A year later, I want to adjust my height again, but I don't remember what the factory ride height is.

Can someone with a stock GT, or someone who knows the data already, go out and measure the height from the wheel center to fender lip for me? Though I can't provide any financial compensation, I would be greatly thankful :headbang:

[DopeCelicaGT]

^^^ If I am not mistaken it is 14.75 inches or something. By the way how long have you had your TRD coilovers and how do you like them?? Have you had any problems with them??

[crbn blu]

^^^ If I am not mistaken it is 14.75 inches or something. By the way how long have you had your TRD coilovers and how do you like them?? Have you had any problems with them??

Thanks DopeCelicaGT.

As far as the TRD coilovers, I have had them since Christmas 2004, so 8 months. To be completely honest, I would have much rather gotten something else, but I couldn't turn down the deal I got on these (new set for $700 shipped).

Likes: Easy install, easy height adjustment, Toyota made, great handling
Dislikes: No dampening adjustability (THIS IS A BIG DRAWBACK)

The ride is pretty rough. Granted, it's supposed to be rougher with coilovers, but I wish the kit had dampening adjustability like the TEIN or Hotchkis kits. I would have rather spent the extra $600 to get the TEINs and have the adjustability.

I originally set the height at 1.5 inches lower than stock at each corner, but after a couple months of use, the height lowered about a half inch more from the springs "breaking in." So I raised the car a 1/2" at each corner to compensate. At 1.5" lower, it tour up the turns!! After raising it 1/2", the performance was SLIGHTLY less. It just seems to roll in turns more. The ride quality is also softer now. Potholes aren't AS rough as they use to be.

In conclusion, if you're looking for a budget coilover kit (if you can find a deal like mine), they're not bad, but if you can afford the TEINs, go with them and get the EDFC

[DopeCelicaGT]

Well I already have them but have had nothing but problems with them. I think it is mostly alignment issues but they do not seem to perform up to par for me. However, mine are sitting at their recommended settings of thread 42 in front and 16 in the back. HMMM...I am kind of curious as to how you got them to only drop the car 1.5 inches all the way around? I mean on thread number 42 the car is supposed to be dropped 1.68 inches up front and from what I can tell with the struts still on the car that is about as high as it will go, well you can go a little higher but not much. I am assuming that in order for the car to be only dropped 1.5 inches in the front then the spring perch would have to be pretty much all the way at the top of the thread part of the strut. Hmmm...I just cannot figure out how your getting phenomenal handling and mine sucks LOL. I think it is major alignment issues or the struts are bad, as I had to replace a brand new one when I got them in because it was blown. You see I fell for the same deal you did and I too wish I had got something better.

[crbn blu]

Well I already have them but have had nothing but problems with them. I think it is mostly alignment issues but they do not seem to perform up to par for me. However, mine are sitting at their recommended settings of thread 42 in front and 16 in the back. HMMM...I am kind of curious as to how you got them to only drop the car 1.5 inches all the way around? I mean on thread number 42 the car is supposed to be dropped 1.68 inches up front and from what I can tell with the struts still on the car that is about as high as it will go, well you can go a little higher but not much. I am assuming that in order for the car to be only dropped 1.5 inches in the front then the spring perch would have to be pretty much all the way at the top of the thread part of the strut. Hmmm...I just cannot figure out how your getting phenomenal handling and mine sucks LOL. I think it is major alignment issues or the struts are bad, as I had to replace a brand new one when I got them in because it was blown. You see I fell for the same deal you did and I too wish I had got something better.

What alignment issues are you having? Other than not being able to have my car driven on to the lift (because of the reduction in height and the added length of my Kaminari front end) I have not had any issues. I have an unlimited alignment policy and I have had it aligned at least a half dozen times and it's always corrected to "factory" specs. Is your shop telling you that they can't fix it? I don't buy that. They're semi-factory parts and it doesn't affect the alignment that much at all. I did the install myself and I didn't even screw anything up that bad. I go to Merchant's Tire/Tire Kingdom to have mine done. They've never once had an issue, other than the afore mentioned problem.

I used the thread count as my initial guide for putting the coilovers together, but once I got them on my car, I used the height from wheel center to fender lip to adjust my height. That is how it's suppose to be done. I put the parts on with the kit set at what TRD recommended, then let the car down on all four wheels, measured the change in height from the OEM parts, then determined how many more threads I needed to get to TRD's height. Since 360 degrees of rotation changes the height 1/8", I raised/lowered as needed. I drove around for some time with it set at the 1.68"F/1.75"R height and noticed that every time I came to a stop, the back shocks would squeek like I was hitting the bumpstop. So I raised it all to 1.5" lower all around.

If I remember correctly, the front struts are near the very top of the threads, and the back shocks are near the bottom. If you'd like, I can go out and count threads and get back to you so you know how I have mine setup. No problem.

[DopeCelicaGT]

Yeah I installed all of my stuff as well as I am not new to this. However, I think I just took my car to an incompetent shop who is supposed to know how to do alignments. The alignment is off bad and I mean very bad. The other I was up under my car doing an oil change and noticed that one of the struts looks like this | and the other side looks like this \ so I know the alignment is way off. You can't really tell by looking at the wheels but when you got one strut doing this \ while the other is nearly straight up and down then something is wrong LOL. These guys just obviously have no clue what they are doing. I thought about taking it back and telling them to correct it but I did not want them touching my car again. I cannot wait till I get my sways reinstalled, then get a proper alignment to see how these things really handle.

[Scratchy]

one of the struts looks like this | and the other side looks like this \ so I know the alignment is way off. You can't really tell by looking at the wheels but when you got one strut doing this \ while the other is nearly straight up and down then something is wrong LOL

:confused:

[DopeCelicaGT]

one of the struts looks like this | and the other side looks like this \ so I know the alignment is way off. You can't really tell by looking at the wheels but when you got one strut doing this \ while the other is nearly straight up and down then something is wrong LOL

:confused:


What are you confused about LOL?

[Scratchy]

What are you confused about LOL?

:ugh: The front struts angle is fixed and can't be adjusted except with crash bolts (unless you have camber plates of course) but still this will not be visible by eye from just looking at them... :wtf:

[DopeCelicaGT]

What are you confused about LOL?

:ugh: The front struts angle is fixed and can't be adjusted except with crash bolts (unless you have camber plates of course) but still this will not be visible by eye from just looking at them... :wtf:


That is exactly what I thought. I have some major issues then somehow because I am telling you that is how they looked the other day. I might have to take pics. How do you suppose such a thing could have happened?? Wow! This is not good.

[Scratchy]

I might have an idea, but would need you take take both front struts off the car and take pics of them side by side showing the lower mounting brackets and strut body.

[DopeCelicaGT]

That is not a problem. I can do that as I have to get an alignment anyways. What do you think it could be??

[Scratchy]

maybe the mounting brackets at the bottom of the struts are off (improperly welded or drilled, who knows) on one of them and that would change the motion ratio of that corner thereby reducing the effective spring rate seen at the wheel (the more the angle the less the effective spring rate, simple geometry applies here as this is a MacPherson type), explaining maybe the strange handling you are mentionning. Anyway, let's see first before going into much details...

[DopeCelicaGT]

Cool. I will take them off and check them out more thoroughly + take pics when I get the chance. I think I am about ready to trash these things anyways but I thought I would try to see what I could do with them as the struts and whatnot themselves look like they could take some major abuse.